As is known, pourable products are sold in a wide range of bottles or containers, which are sterilized, filled and capped in container processing plants, typically including a plurality of processing stations or machines, such as rinsing machines, filling machines, labelling machines and capping machines. These processing stations may include linear machines or, more frequently, rotating, or so called “carousel-type”, machines.
The following description will refer to rotating or carousel-type machines only, although this is in no way intended to limit the scope of the present application.
Labelling machines are known, which are designed to apply labels on the containers being processed.
In particular, sleeve labels are often used with bottles or other containers designed to contain pourable products; such labels are obtained by the subsequent steps of: cutting a web, unwound, from a supply roll, into a plurality of web portions, e.g. of a rectangular or square shape; winding each web portion in a tubular configuration so that opposite vertical edges overlap; and welding or sealing of the overlapping edges to fix the web in a sleeve form.
Labelling machines are known, in which each sleeve label, is formed about a cylindrical winding body (commonly known as “sleeve drum”) end subsequently transferred onto a container, by introduction of the container within the sleeve label. The sleeve label is then fixed on the container by means of a thermal retraction process.
This kind of labelling machine comprises a conveyor (so called carousel), which rotates about a vertical axis defining a substantially circular path, along which it is designed to: receive respective sequences of unlabelled containers and of labelling material portions from respective input wheels; manage the application of sleeve labels onto corresponding containers; and release the labelled containers onto an output wheel.
The carousel comprises a number of processing units which are equally spaced about the rotation axis, are mounted along the periphery of the carousel and are moved by the latter along the above-mentioned circular path.
Each processing unit comprises a supporting element, which is designed to support the bottom wall of a container, and a retaining element, which is designed to engage the top portion of the container to maintain it in a vertical position during the rotation of the carousel.
As schematically shown in FIG. 1a, each supporting element 1 comprises a base 2, fixed to a horizontal plane of a rotating frame of the carousel, and a cylindrical winding body 3, which is coupled to the base 2 and is designed to carry a respective container 4 on a top surface thereof, and a respective sleeve label 5 on a side surface thereof.
Winding body 3 is movable, by mechanical cam means (not shown), between a raised position and a completely retracted position, with respect to the base 2.
In the raised position (shown in FIG. 1a), winding body 3 is adapted to receive sleeve label 5 on its side surface from a label input wheel; in particular, sleeve label 5 is wound about the winding body 3, so that opposite vertical edges thereof are overlapped to one another.
After welding of the overlapped edges of the sleeve label 5 by a sealing device, the movement of the winding body 3 from the raised position to the completely retracted position determines the insertion of the container 4 within the sleeve label 5 (as indicated by the arrow in FIG. 1b); the container obtained thereby is ready to be transferred onto the output wheel.
Although satisfactory with respect to many aspects, the Applicant has realized that this known solution also suffers from some drawbacks.
In particular, control of the machine requires a number of control units, designed to manage operation of the various operating elements, and the various control units need to be communicatively coupled, in order to manage processing of the containers.
Moreover, designing of the mechanical cam means, which cause movement of the containers 4 within the sleeve labels 5, may be a critical aspect of the overall machine design.
In general, it is also known that it may prove desirable to integrate more functions within a single multi-purpose machine, in order to simplify design and layout, of the container processing plant and also improve maintenance thereof.
However, the above discussed solution is not altogether satisfactory in this respect; in particular, the labelling operation may impede execution of further operations, such as filling operations relating to the same containers 3.
Therefore, the need is surely felt for a solution, which may improve designing of layout and control architecture of container processing machines, in particular with respect to labelling and associated processing operations.